Frontier – Season 3, Episode 4: “All for All and None for One”

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Satanazes” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “House of the Lord” – click hereThis episode starts us out with a Meryl Streep quote concerning empathy— there’s a distinct lack and show of empathy on Frontier, depending on the characters. Right now, Declan Harp (Jason Momoa) has to deal with Fortunato’s (Michael Raymond-James) worries concerning his pay, and what happens when they arrive in Scotland. He tells the captain they’re going there because of Grace (Zoe Boyle).
The crew dock in Scotland before long. McTaggart (Jamie Sives) isn’t thrilled to be there, given people at home want to kill him. Nevertheless, Harp convinces him to do what he can to help them get armed for the battle we all know is coming. Something interesting this season has been seeing Declan’s sense of humour emerge, such as here when he taunts Chaulk (Kathryn Wilder), or like how he fucked with Wadlow before they fatal fight. Great stuff, and keeps the character fresh, too.
The “violence of the white man” has infringed upon Indigenous lands because of Michael Smyth (Landon Liboiron). He’s brought death to Kamenna’s (Tantoo Cardinal), who’s not pleased. She sees the Irishman the same as the Hudson’s Bay Company. She sees all white men the same because white men have treated Indigenous land and the people on it the same, one way or another. In spite of that, Kamenna tenuously agrees to a deal with Michael, Malcolm (Michael Patric), and the hopeful alliance. She warns against a “river of blood” as a way of beating the HBC. And already, Redcoats are crawling the hillside, forcing the young Irishman to flee while Mr. Brown offers distraction and gets himself arrested.At Castle Benton, Grace is face to face with her father Edward (Gary Lewis) after so long, realising he abandoned her back at Fort James pretending he was only in Montreal for a while. She resents her father, for leaving her alone against the wilderness, against men, and against the violence.
Sokanon (Jessica Matten) goes looking for Mary (Breanne Hill) after the barmaid didn’t show up for their late night meeting. She has a problem already with Imogen (Diana Bentley) because she helps pimp out other women, including Native women. She’s not able to get any info out of Imogen, though we know she conspired with O’Reilly (Stephen Oates) to do something nasty. Anybody else want to see Sokanon kill this lady? Yeah— me too!
Things are getting rough for McTaggart – “Maggie” as his old pals call him – after he starts helping Harp get around his former Scottish stomping grounds. A couple men named Barclay and Angus want to make trouble for the lads. When Fortunato’s man and Harp appeal to the men’s better judgement, they find things go a little better, just so long as they can drink and fight as good as a Scotsman.
Lord Benton (Alun Armstrong) has tracked down Chaulk in the streets via one of his men. He’s forcing her to help bring Harp in, or else Ms. Emberly will meet a “tragic end.” The young woman lies about knowing anything about the rebel. Finally, she admits that Declan is coming for Benton anyway. On top of that, Benton successfully uses Grace’s father against her to make her fold. Then he’s got her aiding him in passing off his own crimes onto Chesterfield. What a prick.In Montreal, Cobbs Pond (Greg Bryk) and Clenna (Lyla Porter-Follows) are on the same page, yet they have different motivations. She’s perhaps taken somewhat of an interest in Douglas Brown (Allan Hawco). Probably because Cobbs treats her like she’s stupid simply for being a woman. That’ll backfire. This lady’s no fool. While Mr. Pond is gone to the frontier it leaves Ms. Dolan alone at the mansion. She receives a visit from none other than Douglas for dinner. He tries warning her of Pond’s danger.
Michael comes upon O’Reilly and his Indigenous wife Kahwihta (Ellyn Jade) in the forest. The Irishman doesn’t know exactly who he’s in bed with, though. Later, Sokanon finds Kahwihta alone and discovers she was given to O’Reilly by “godly men” to “secure trade relations” when it was merely misogyny, rape, and cultural erasure. Even though O’Reilly is terrible, he helps Michael infiltrate the camp to get to Malcolm. Only they run into Cobbs Pond, who’s got them dead to rights at gunpoint.
At the pub, Harp goes drink for drink and fist for fist with Barclay until he vomits everywhere. Barclay agrees to help because of how tough the man proves himself. Afterwards, the group find Chaulk outside pretending like she hasn’t been threatened by Benton, and poor Declan can barely walk.Douglas tells Clenna to come to him should she ever be in danger. Back at home, Douglas finds Josephette (Karen LeBlanc) continually worried about business. He’s armed with new info about Mr. Smyth from Clenna, beginning to doubt the Irishman more than before.
Sokanon confronts O’Reilly, wanting to know what he’s up to with Michael. She holds him at the end of a bow. However, Kahwihta interrupts, and then her husband whacks Sokanon hard over the head, knocking her out. Oh, god. Not good.
Although this is one of my least favourite episodes of Season 3, it’s still solid. “House of the Lord” is next.

An Update from Father Gore

Seek & Ye Shall Find

Father Gore is first and foremost a passionate lover of film— especially horror. He's also a Master's student at Memorial University of Newfoundland with a concentration in postmodern critical theory, currently writing a thesis which will be his debut novel of literary fiction, titled Silence. He also used to write for Film Inquiry frequently during 2016-17 and is currently contributing to Scriptophobic in a column called Serial Killer Celluloid focusing on film adaptations about real life murderers. As of September 2018, Father Gore is an official member of the Online Film Critics Society.